Posts in: Typography
Explorations into the vast world of typography. From the history of certain glyphs to current trends and styles.
Typography
Posted on: April 3, 2011 by Kevin Elko in Typography
Tags: fonts, type, typography
Typography is at the heart of graphic design. It serves as both a vehicle of information and a visual element, and has the power to make or break a design. While there is no perfect set of typographic rules, there are some general guidelines that should be observed to better foster successful typography. The Anatomy of a Character The smallest element of typography is the letter, but what makes up a letter? Letters in different font-faces look different, but there are a number of structural elements that unify the form of one letter in a typeface to the same letter in a different t...
The History of Typographical Symbols
Posted on: February 6, 2011 by Kevin Elko in Typography
Tags: glyphs, history, typography
Typography is a vast, deep subject. It spans nearly the entire history of mankind and is continually evolving. Written languages are constantly being mutated by shorthand, new technology, etc. and spawn a huge number of ligatures, logograms, symbols, and other glyphs. Below is just a brief look into the history of some of the more popular symbols. The ampersand The ampersand was originally a ligature of the Latin word et, meaning and. The ligature can be traced back to the first century, but the Roman ampersand we see most often today evolved sometime around the 9th century during th...